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While I was at the dealer I noticed a non sport 535i had a strange thing attached to the oil filter housing. I had seen this before on a 3 series and knew it was a heat exchanger. I looked at my car and noticed, a thermostat and oil lines connecting to an auxiliary oil cooler near the passenger front end. After looking at several 535i's, it looks like certain models come with an auxiliary oil cooler, while others don't.

So What? You may ask. While it doesn't seem material at this point. In the previous models, engines without oil coolers were not upgradable to receive the BMW Performance Power Kit which BMW may introduce in the future to N55 owners.

Same thing was true on my friends 135i. He lucked out because he had the M Package and it came with the extra oil cooler and a few other items that made it possible for an inexpensive performance upgrade. If not for that, it would have been difficult to upgrade.

Miamiboyca, what "few other items" would make it possible for an inexpensive performance upgrade?

My 2012 535i Msport has the oil cooler which leads to a radiator behind the left front bumper mesh. There also appears to be a radiator behind the right front bumper mesh. Is this the auxiliary cooler for "hot climate" vehicles?

Miamiboyca, what "few other items" would make it possible for an inexpensive performance upgrade?

My 2012 535i Msport has the oil cooler which leads to a radiator behind the left front bumper mesh. There also appears to be a radiator behind the right front bumper mesh. Is this the auxiliary cooler for "hot climate" vehicles?

Since its not my car, I can not speak to it intelligently, but sounds about right. Don't know that is anything to do with hot climate, he lives in a pretty cold climate.

My 2012 535i Msport has the oil cooler which leads to a radiator behind the left front bumper mesh. There also appears to be a radiator behind the right front bumper mesh. Is this the auxiliary cooler for "hot climate" vehicles?

The auxiliary radiator behind the bumper on the driver side looks to be standard on the N55.

The one for the oil cooler on the passenger side looks to be specific to Sport and M-Sport models:

According to the RealOEM parts catalog it says standard with Automatic and Sports Automatic. Also, the guys is from Russia. It hard enough trying to figure out whats specific to USA, let alone the differences in global markets.